So during the chaos of the past few months, the frequency of my food shopping has significantly decreased. Last week I picked up some staples — tofu, spinach, pasta and then grabbed some jalapeños. One night I had a little time so I decided to make a variation of Pasta de Los Angeles. The pasta was filled with spicy, garlicy, lime goodness. Extra jalapeños as a garnish was a must.

A couple days later, using some of the same base ingredients as the pasta, I made a tofu scramble with spinach, jalapeños, scallions & garlic. Mixed with some spices (thyme, cumin, turmeric, paprika), nutritional yeast and nama shoyou, this was a deliciously spicy vegan breakfast. Not my typical picks for tofu scramble add-ins but it tasted amazing (especially with extra hot sauce).

While I’ve been MIA blog-wise for the past few months due to being extremely busy, interning and finishing up my last senester of college, I’ve still been doing some cooking (and eating a lot of takeout). To follow are a couple posts of some of the things I’ve made in the past few months. Stay tuned!

In another attempt to cope with the blistering Boston summer heat, I decided ice cream was necessary. Unfortunately Lula’s isn’t down the street (or even in the same city) and vegan ice cream isn’t readily available at 7-11 so I decided to just make my own. Luckily I had some frozen bananas in the freezer that I use for smoothies, which worked as a good base for my homemade “ice cream.”

In a blender, I combined:

1.5 frozen bananas

1 tbsp coco powder

1/2 tbsp vanilla extract

about a tbsp of agave nectar

Whirl together until creamy and smooth. I topped mine with some vegan chocolate chips and chopped cashews. It definitely isn’t traditional “ice cream” but it was a nice cold treat for a summer night.

This quick and easy sandwich is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. Perfect for a summer afternoon when it’s too hot to even think about cooking something and you want to make a quick lunch before running back into your air conditioned room (Boston summers are SO HOT).

Here’s all you need:

tofutti cream cheese

a few thin slices of cucumber

5 or 6 basil leaves

1/4 avocado

2 slices of toasted multigrain

salt + pepper

Toast bread, shmear tofutti, pile on the rest of the ingredients + enjoy!

After my chocolate chip cookie success, I wanted to try another recipe. This time I tried Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Cookies from Joy the Baker. I didn’t have chocolate covered sunflower seeds like she did (seriously, where are you supposed to find those??) so I just substituted vegan chocolate chips. I went by her recipe but personally feel that the cookies would have come out better if they were a little bigger. Either way, they’re good vegan cookies– give them a try!

After much trial and error with various vegan cookies, I finally found the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe at the Post Punk Kitchen! These cookies are easy and fantastic — they stay soft and gooey for days!

Here’s the PPK recipe, for those of you who don’t want to click through:

2. Mix together sugars, oil, milk and tapioca flour in a mixing bowl. Use a strong fork and mix really well, for about 2 minutes, until it resembles smooth caramel. There is a chemical reaction when sugar and oil collide, so it’s important that you don’t get lazy about that step. Mix in the vanilla.

3. Add 1 cup of the flour, the baking soda and salt. Mix until well incorporated. Mix in the rest of the flour. Fold in the chocolate chips. The dough will be a little stuff so use your hands to really work them in.

4. Roll the dough into about ping pong ball size balls. Flatten them out in your hands to about 2 1/2 inches. They will spread just a bit. Place on a baking sheet and bake for about 8 minutes – no more than 9 – until they are just a little browned around the edges. I usually get 16 out of these so I do two rounds of eight cookies. Let cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack.